Creative Agency Lead, Google

Imran has worked in media for over 6 years at CBS Television, Warner Bros., and Turner Broadcasting in various roles including scripted series development and sponsorship marketing. Prior to Google he launched a media startup, The Snack Content Network™, while pursuing his MBA at Columbia Business School. He has two diametrically opposite degrees in Biochemical Engineering and Musical Theatre from Northwestern University. Imran currently works with creative agencies to partner and develop brand initiatives for advertisers by capitalizing on dynamic opportunities in the digital world.​

President, W2O Group

Bob has a unique combination of social media, marketing and communications skills acquired during nearly 25 years at three Fortune 500 companies and a major consultancy. He was most recently vice president of Communities and Conversations at Dell Inc, where he was responsible for developing an industry-leading approach to the use of social media, as highlighted in GroundSwell. His team built and maintained 25 blogs, forums and wikis in 7 languages worldwide with 200 million page views of annual interaction and coordinated the company's approach in Twitter, Facebook and other key sites.

Senior Director of Media Relations, 20th Century Fox

As Sr. Director of Media Relations, Twentieth Television, Los Angeles-based Radow oversees Twentieth Television's public relations for the studio's syndicated television division.

Prior to 2007, when Radow began as Director of Media Relations at Twentieth Television, he served as Senior Manager of Publicity at Universal Studios Home Entertainment. During his six years at Universal, he handled various roles at the division including online, print, and event publicity.

Radow received his Bachelor of Science degree in Television, Radio, and Film Management from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He is also the co-founder of ScenePast, the company behind nostalgia travel iPhone apps including ScenePast: Movie & TV Time Travel.

Communications Manager, YouTube

Matt McLernon works in PR with the belief that communication can be used to improve all walks of life. Currently, he's supporting both the product team behind YouTube, and the creators who are using it to become the new generation of channels. Prior to that, Matt worked in the PR agency world supporting clients like Logitech, HP, Groupon, Sun Microsystems, Boehringer Ingelheim and more, building awareness and driving growth opportunities. Matt's a proud graduate of Syracuse University (Newhouse '05), even though he's moved west to avoid having to shovel snow. He currently lives in the Bay Area with his wife Heather and dog Scoop. ​

Director of Global PR, Soundcloud

Kristina is a tenacious media relations expert with established national business, technology, online and broadcast relationships. For the past two+ years, Kristina has been the U.S. PR point person responsible for securing company and executive profiles and preparing key messaging and information for media interviews, speaking engagements, and additional corporate initiatives. Kristina plays an important role advising senior management in communications for a number of specific functions, including upcoming public announcements, events, and crisis communications. She manages a global team of four people based in the UK.

Prior to SoundCloud, Kristina worked at The OutCast Agency where she worked with a variety of technology clients including salesforce.com, Bump, VMware and Jawbone. She supported team efforts in the areas of corporate reputation, media relations, executive visibility, and thought leadership.

During her career, Kristina has secured numerous media results in outlets ranging from The New York Times to ReadWrite. She has managed a variety of comms activities including Dublin Web Summit '13, Le Web '12, SXSW '11/'12, and Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Principal, W2O Group

Gary Grates leads the Corporate and Strategy practices at W2O Group Worldwide, a fast-growing, multi-faceted leading public relations, marketing and communications counseling firm focused on integrated business solutions in the areas product supremacy, innovation, change, organizational effectiveness, and growth for the world's leading organizations.

Grates oversees a team of professionals counseling senior leaders and Boards of Directors from global organizations in the areas of leadership transition, M&A integration, labor-management relations, organizational effectiveness, employee engagement, function optimization, internal communications improvement, strategy implementation, change management, and Vision, Mission, Values development. In addition, he is a member of the firm's leadership team.

National Chair, PRSA; Senior Vice President, MWW

Joe Cohen, APR, serves as Chair of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).  He is also a senior vice president at MWW, one of the top five global independent public relations firms.  As a member of the leadership team of MWW's consumer marketing practice, he has helped establish best practices while guiding communications, integrated marketing and digital/social media strategy for such major brands and organizations as Sara Lee/Hillshire Brands, Zumba Fitness, Gold's Gym International, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM and Sbarro Italian Eatery.
 
Cohen’s expertise spans the food/restaurant, consumer packaged goods, retail, health/fitness, sports marketing, entertainment and non-profit sectors.  His account experience also includes The Palm Restaurant Group, Bally Total Fitness, Everlast and Go Bowling!, the national marketing effort to promote the bowling industry.
 
He has received numerous industry honors and awards including the PRWeek “40 Under 40” (2013), "PR Team Leader of the Year" at the PR News PR People Awards (2010) and recognition by PRWeek on its list of Ten Rising Stars (2006).

Professor, Newhouse School

William J. Ward—a.k.a. "DR4WARD"—is ranked one of the Top Marketing Professors on Twitter bySocial Media Marketing Magazine and is featured on BestOnlineUniversities.com’s list of Top 100 Web-Savvy Professors of 2012. DR4WARD is an authority on digital and social media, quoted in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA TODAY, Inc., Forbes, Fortune, CNN, Bloomberg Businessweek, FastCompany, NPR and The Huffington Post, and called upon to speak at TEDx and SXSW Interactive Conferences. DR4WARD is also a delegate to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and a Google Glass Explorer

Professor, Newhouse School

As the founder and president of Strategic Communications LLC, Michael Meath brings to the classroom insight gained from nearly 30 years of experience in corporate management. Outside of the classroom, he works comfortably with organization leaders to help them develop effective messages that are communicated at the right time—whether during a crisis, a significant marketplace shift or a strategic plan rollout. His company provides public relations, crisis communications, government relations, strategic planning and issues management consulting to energy, health care, government, education, manufacturing, industrial design, financial services and insurance organizations throughout the U.S.

Prior to starting his own business, Meath served as vice president of business development and public affairs for Agway Energy Products, where he managed all public relations, legislative, regulatory, legal and communications issues for 2,300 employees and 500,000 customers. He also served as Agway’s corporate director of health and safety and director of government and regulatory affairs. Before joining Agway, he held leadership roles in the health care and insurance industries.

CEO, GolinHarris

I have worked at GolinHarris for almost 30 years and I have enjoyed every day of it. I started as an account supervisor in our Los Angeles office and moved to Chicago six years ago to become our third CEO. The primary reason I have stayed with the firm for so long is because of our culture. I spent a lot of time visiting our offices around the world and everywhere I go I am impressed by the dedication and enthusiasm of our people.

Al Golin founded the company based on a few simple Midwestern values — humility, hard work and trust. I believe my job is to preserve those values because they are critical to our people, our clients and our future. Recently, we have won lots of awards, including being voted “Agency of the Year” by three different groups, but I am most proud of the fact that in our annual survey, 92% of our staff believe our company is headed in the right direction.

Although we don’t spend a lot of time patting ourselves on the back, we are proud of what we have accomplished in the past 50 years. But we are even more excited about the future. Our world is experiencing profound changes in demographics, globalization, multiculturalism and technology which are impacting the way people communicate with each other. Understanding these changes and applying them to our clients’ business is what makes our work so important. It is a fascinating time to be in the PR business and the perfect time to be at GolinHarris.

Newhouse Professor; Former VP of Communications, Time Warner Cable

Bill Jasso, a graduate of the Newhouse School's Communications Management program, returned to his alma mater in 2012. Previously, he was vice president of communications at Time Warner Cable in Akron, Ohio. He also served on the cabinet of the mayor of Akron; was director of communications for the National Golf Foundation; and director of public relations for Warner Amex Cable Communications in Dublin, Ohio.

Jasso developed the crisis communications plan for Time Warner's Midwest Region and directed that company's launch of and media relations for its Road Runner High Speed Online product.

He has served as a board member and professional development chair for the Association of Cable Communicators and is a past president of the Greater Akron Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.